ROCKTON - Sparked by a third-quarter, one-handed dunk for each, Demry Croft and Brock Stull scored 15 second-half points apiece as Boylan turned it up and pulled away for a 59-45 win over Hononegah on Friday night.

The win boosted Boylan (14-5, 8-1 NIC-10) into a battle with Auburn (19-4, 9-1), a 20-point winner over Guilford on Friday, for the conference crown down the stretch, while Hononegah (11-11, 6-4) was bumped into the middle of the pack.

But it wasn't decided until the Titans broke loose in the second half. Hononegah led by as many as four in the first quarter and by one at halftime, with Ryan Sughroue heading toward his 20-point night by hitting four of his first seven shots.

Boylan, on the other hand, missed five in a row and hit just four of its 19 shots in the second quarter. Croft and Stull, the team's leading scorers this season, combined for one point in the first half.

"That was a rough start, but give Hononegah credit: They were relentless in that first half," said Croft, who was whistled for his third foul less than a minute into the second quarter, but never got his fourth. "Coach said at halftime that we needed to come out big in that third quarter. I'd say Brock came out pretty big."

Less than two minutes in, Stull's steal and coast-to-coast, high-flying, slam dunk vaulted the Titans toward their first 8-0 run of the second half, while Croft's midcourt theft and dunk ended the second with Boylan up 14 early in the fourth. Hononegah missed its last four 3-pointers and Croft drained four straight free throws in the final three minutes to avenge the Titans' six-point loss to the Indians on Dec. 7.

"We did a great job on both of them in the first half, but that was kind of fool's gold, we knew they would wake up," Hononegah coach Mike Miller said. "And then Stull was fantastic, but Croft just took over. He just dominated the game down the stretch."

Croft made five of his six second-half shots and Stull was 6-for-8 in the final two quarters after going 0-for-4 and earning two quick first-half fouls himself. In the end, none of that mattered.

"This is a great win for us. These guys are our biggest rivals and this is always our biggest game, so to finish it like this is huge," Stull said. "It happened last year: We got hot at just the right time. We're hoping now's the time for us this year, too."

Sughroue was the only Indian to score in double figures, although Kyle Blunt chipped in with three 3s while scoring nine points. Chase Ferger added 12 points for Boylan, which will get at least one more shot at Auburn, coming on the last game of the regular season on Feb. 28.